Michigan gets back to the basics, stifles Vanderbilt ANN ARBOR MICHIGAN SEPTEMBER 2, 2006 While it wasn’t mid-way through the fourth quarter that the win was secured, most M fans had already seen the things they wanted to see: an undisputed domination of the line of scrimmage . Renewed Offensive Coordinator Mike DeBord moved the Blue to a zone-style blocking scheme that seemed effective in creating chances for Mike Hart. And new Defensive Coordinator Ron English’s d line was playing in the Vanderbilt backfield all day. The day was far from perfect. There were several mistakes that stalled or killed drives: penalties, dropped passes, poor field goal attempts and bad passes to cite a few. And while the Denver Bronco-style blocking scheme freed up Mike Hart for major yardage, Vanderbilt seemed to adjust in the second half and also put a lot of pressure on Chad Henne throughout the game. As pointed out by many of the players during the post game presser, there are many issues to resolve. Here are the takes on this game: – 171-9. Say what you want about the opponent, this is still a team that beat Tennessee last year and just missed knocking off Florida in the Swamp. Losing Jay Cutler to the draft was obviously a huge loss, but the Commodores had plenty…
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Michigan Marrow Drive 2006
M Open Doors on Sunday to support Slade, Marrow Registry ANN ARBOR MICHIGAN SEPTEMBER 3, 2006 In support of Dr. Tom Slade, M quarterback from ’71-’73 who has leukemia, Michigan sponsored a blood drive and bone marrow testing event at the Junge Family Center on Sunday after the game. Abby and I stopped by to check it out and to join for the bone marrow registry. It was very simple: fill out a form, primarily with contact info for me and my alternative contacts, and take a swab of my cheeks (mouth, that is). They provide 4 bar-coded swab sticks (like long q-tips), and a kit to store and mail in the swabs. It is a common misperception that they need blood or marrow to determine your ‘type’, but all they actually need is some DNA. Overall, the whole process took about ten minutes. Here’s more information about the event and how to get involved. As far as the Junge Family Center – while I didn’t get a full tour, it seemed pretty basic. A large room with some nice wide screen TV monitors around the perimeter. Certainly it is a perfect gathering place before the games for players’ families.
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2006 College Football Rule Changes
A summary, review and comment on the changes in the football code ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN AUGUST 28, 2006 The big whigs that run college football made some interesting modifications to the rule book this year. Here’s a quick rundown of some of these rules changes and my take. 1. Coaches Challenge. Basically this provides that a coach may call a time-out then indicate to the referee that he is challenging a call on the field. A few points here: – The coach gets one per game, but it requires that the coach have timeouts left to use. Although the coach gets the timeout back if he is correct, the coach doesn’t get another review. – The replay referee is still reviewing every play. Basically it works like last year but this gives a coach a chance to get their timeout back when they intentionally stop the clock for a review. – The rules committee also clarified the rule for when instant replay is in effect. It is solely the discretion of the home team. – I wonder if we’ll see a scenario when a coach calls his last timeout at the end of a game (to kill the clock), and at some point during the time-out requests a replay of the last play. The hope is that a) the coach…
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Michigan Fan Day 2006
Michigan Football opens the gates again for fans in 2006 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN AUGUST 26, 2006 The Michigan Stadium gates swung open once again this year to allow the fans to meet the 2006 Wolverine coaches and players. We enjoyed the 90 minute warm embrace of the Michigan athletic department Saturday morning along with around 5,000 others. After last year’s logistical debacle they made some intelligent changes with the layout. By putting the players outside the stadium near the concession stands, they made better use of the space. They had freshman on the actual playing field which allowed more room for the kids to run around on the field and enjoy the day. I got to see my new seats in Section 38 – a very nice improvement. Also, we saw the results of some of the infrastructure renovation. They poured new cement in most of the stadium and stamped the row number in large print. Lew and Penny joined Abby and I for an hour or so as we toured around. Abby Dooley is under the impression that we attended an actual game and that Michigan won thanks in part to her efforts.
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Michigan Football Preview 2006
What you need to know about this squad SALINE, MICHIGAN AUGUST 10, 2006 Expectations are high once again for Michigan. Here’s this season’s look at the upcoming season and this team. – Last Season. Obviously this was ugly, and 2005 will be looked at as the worst season since the early 80s. Michigan could have won every game on the schedule and had significant leads in every game, blowing it five times in losses to Notre Dame, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl. And the wins didn’t come easier either, with Michigan winning on the last play of the game against Michigan State in DB13 (OT), Penn State and Iowa (OT). While it is the worst season since I entered the U of M campus in the Fall of 1989, it probably featured the most exciting games. – Sun Belt Refs. Speaking of exciting, the Alamo Bowl all in all was quite a ride. The pathetic crew of referees from the Sun Belt conference that lost control of the game are a running joke in town. Check this out, the Sun Belt conference even produced a full report to rebut the hammering they took in the national media [check it out]. These guys were so clueless. – Last Play of the Season. I captured the diagram…
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Wolverine & Buckeye Coaches-In Cahoots?
SALINE, MICHIGAN AUGUST 19, 2006 The Ann Arbor News featured an interesting piece on new Michigan linebacker’s coach Steve Szabo, a college and NFL journeyman who’s in his first season at Michigan. His resume is impressive: – 3 years playing halfback and defensive back at Navy, played with Roger Staubach.– He served in Viet Nam after leaving Navy.– NFL stints with Jacksonville, Buffalo, and for the Patriots, where he got his Super Bowl ring.– College stops with Iowa, Ohio State, Iowa State, Toledo and Western Michigan. To me, here’s the most interesting part of the article, where Szabo describes his relationship with Lloyd Carr: Szabo said his familiarity with Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr drew him to Ann Arbor. As defensive coordinators in the early 1990s, he and Carr would occasionally talk Xs and Os. Earlier, Szabo was an assistant coach at Ohio State when Carr started as an assistant at Michigan in 1980, and the two staffs had a lot of contact with each other. I understand that there is a coaching fraternity. These guys often hop from team to team (as demonstrated by Szabo), and just like in politics like to keep a friendly relationship with all the players. But swapping Xs and Os, and that they “had a lot of contact” with each other? I wonder if…
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2006 Football Tickets Arrive
AUGUST 5, 2006 I received my season tickets today, and this is always a fun day for me. There were some major changes to the ticket format. First, the tickets are about 50% bigger than in the previous designs. Second, they put a new advertiser on the back of each game. Third, this year’s tickets are barcoded. The final change is the gloss. While the tickets are of high quality the borders of the tickets seem to be in a shade of purple or gold, depending on the game. This couldn’t have been the plan!
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Bracket Perfection a mere 65,000 to 1?
Ann Arbor News cites odds of perfect bracket, Webmaster cringes SALINE, MICHIGAN MARCH 18, 2006 The March 16, 2006 Ann Arbor News published a front page piece featuring local Saline resident and ESPN.com NCAA Tournament statistical guru Pete Tiernan. Mr. Tiernan has poured over NCAA tourney data for years and plugged it into his old school Apple PC. With a flick of the mouse, he has come up with all kinds of statistical trends that can be used to predict how the tournament field will fare. One troubling item in the Ann Arbor News piece: one of the stats under a table they called ‘Tiernan’s Tips’ said that “The chance of correctly filling out an entire tournament bracket is 1 in 65,636.” This was instantly troubling. For starters, I’ve been in the ESPN.com NCAA hoops tournament pool each year that attracts several million contestants and I don’t recall anyone ever getting it perfect. Last year’s winner on ESPN.com got 55 out of a possible 63. This 65,000 to 1 figure couldn’t possibly be correct. I thought it over, prayed on it, and decided to go to the source. MVictors.com contacted Tiernan, who immediately replied and stated that figure was incorrect. He didn’t give me an exact figure, but cited that if you treated each game as a 50/50 prop, the…
